Rose City Reader

Monday, April 3, 2023

Painting Through the Dark by Gemma Whelan -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

I actually got this copy of Painting Through the Dark a few weeks ago. But I also got a new hip a few weeks ago! I am finally feeling a little normal and walking around again, so am back to my computer and a To Do list a mile long. That list includes sharing this new book I am excited about.

Painting Through the Dark is a new novel by Irish-born author Gemma Whelan. It is the story of a young woman, Ashling O'Leary, determined to leave Ireland and her demons behind and make a life for herself as an artist in San Francisco.

The book is a page-turner, filled with vividly visual scenes and dialog that make the story speed along. I look forward to reading it right through to find out what happens to Ashling!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Fleeing from the emotional shackles of her family in Ireland and the convent where she was training to be a nun, the feisty 21-year-old Ashling O'Leary arrives in San Francisco in 1982 with a backpack, a judo outfit, her artist's portfolio, a three-month visa, and a determination to find a way to speak up about the abuse of girls and women in Catholic Ireland. As she becomes embroiled in a whirlwind of love, art, and deception, Ashling learns that her success as an artist and a human being depends on dealing with the ghosts of her past and speaking out on behalf of others.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Spring Fever by P. G. Wodehouse -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays, where we share the opening sentences (or so) from the books we are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Spring had come to New York, the eight-fifteen train from Great Neck had come to the Pennsylvania terminus, and G. Ellery Cobbold, that stout economic royalist, had come to his downtown office, all set to prise another wad of currency out of the common people.

-- from Spring Fever by P. G. Wodehouse.

Spring Fever is a stand alone novel for Wodehouse, so no Bertie Wooster or his butler Jeeves, no Blandings Castle, not even a Psmith. But since I have spring fever right now, it seemed like a good choice for my Book Beginning this week.

My copy has this cover, with the sort of illustrated covers by "Ionicus" that I love. Joshua Armitage used the pen name Ionicus to illustrate more than 400 book covers, including 58 Penguin editions of Wodehouse books in the 1970s and ‘80s. I've collected about a dozen, nowhere near all 58, but wouldn’t that be cool?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Spring Fever:

What a great day that was when she came back into my life; on the hoof, as it were, and not merely as a golden, insubstantial memory. It happened quite by chance, and at a moment, oddly enough, when I was not thinking of her but of chump chops, Brussels sprouts and French fried potatoes.

A fluffy farce by Wodehouse always puts me in a good mood.

Friday, March 24, 2023

He Said He Would be Late by Justine Sullivan -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Yikes! I'm still off my game after my hip replacement surgery. This was my first week back in the office after surgery and it threw me off of my schedule with everything else. I didn't even think about it being Friday until just a minute ago, let alone remember to put up my Book Beginnings post early last evening. Sorry. I'll try to get my head back into the game as things get back to normal.

Thank you for joining me for this late Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Our kitchen, like everything else in our house, is white.

-- From He Said He Would be Late by Justine Sullivan. I like that opening sentence because you get a pretty good idea of what their life is like from just those few words. What do you think?

He Said He Would be Late is Justine Sullivan's debut novel about a young wife and new mother who goes into a tailspin when she sees a suspicious text with a kissy-face emoji on her husband's phone. I just got a copy from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program and it looks like a fun domestic thriller.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

I turn off the engine and feed a handful of dusty quarters into the meter, marveling at how old-fashioned so many aspects of greater Boston are: parking, transportation, the public parks. The fact that there are no happy hours.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please join me to share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Now it is the autumn again; the people are all coming back. The recess of summer is over, when holidays are taken, newspapers shrink, history itself seems momentarily to falter and stop.

-- From The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury. I love campus novels and Malcolm Bradbury wrote some of the best of them, including his first novel, Eating People is Wrong.

The History Man was published in 1972 and is a spot-on period piece describing radical campus life in the late '60s and early '70s. The "history man" of the title is Professor Howard Kirk, a sociologist and dynamo of academic vacuity. He waltzes through history, reflecting every cultural, political, and sexual fad. It is dark satire at its best.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

From The History Man:

Well, to understand it, as Howard, always a keen explainer, always explains, you need to know a little Marx, a little Freud, and a little social history; admittedly, with Howard, you need to know all this to explain anything. You need to know the time, the place, the milieu, the substructure and the superstructure, the state of and the determinants of consciousness, and the human capacity of consciousness to expand and explode.

It's not a book for the faint hearted, but it is trenchant and very funny.

Friday, March 10, 2023

Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Well, this post is certainly late! I had hip replacement surgery last week and thought I had prescheduled a post for this week, but apparently I forgot. Now I really feel like an old lady! Senility and an arthritic hip!

Thank you for waiting for me for this week's Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please join me to share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Emma awoke to the sound of planes passing overhead, but she was not fully conscious, and the sound merged with her dream.

-- from Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier. I'm reading this as a buddy read on Instagram. A small group of us have been reading one du Maurier book a month since last November and this is our sixth.

Rule Britannia is du Maurier's last novel, published in 1972. It's a wild romp through alternate history, but with an eerily prescient edge. It's set in the 1970s, shortly after the UK withdrew from Europe, which caused economic difficulties. What is billed as a stronger alliance with the United States is quickly revealed to be a takeover of Britain by its former colony. What a page turner!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

From Rule Britannia:

But one can't exactly treat it as phony while the marines occupy the stable-block, there are barricades on the main road and the telephone is cut. The thing you can do is to sit glued to the television and hope something will happen in between the succession of old American and British films.

I'm racing through to the end because this is such a ripping yarn, and I do love a good yarn.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me on Book Beginnings on Fridays to share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they've always given me that much: the worst of the job was up to me, my mother being let's just say out of it.

-- from Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

The first sentence is terrific. But I went ahead and included the second, just to give more of a flavor for the terrific book. I love it so much!

In Kingsolver's newest book, she sets out to rewrite David Copperfield, but set in modern day Appalachia instead of Victorian England. David Copperfield is my favorite Charles Dickens book, so I caught the thread right away. But I lost it pretty quickly. Maybe I'll pick it up again, but it doesn't matter. The story is so engrossing and the narrator so charming, that it stands on its own.

Have you read this one? I hope it wins the Pulitzer Prize or the National Book Award, although I have no idea if it is even in the running.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Demon Copperhead:

Then Stoner came out of the house. For a split second I wondered what he would think of me having a new dad, and then I got it.

Thursday, February 23, 2023

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass.

-- from The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. That is a terrific opening sentence! One of the best I've read in a long time. It hints at so much story to come and I immediately want to read the rest of the book.

And I almost didn't. I disliked Groff's other book, Fates and Furies, so much that I almost plucked this from my TBR shelf to put in a Little Free Library. But I decided to give it a try as one of my TBR 23 in '23 books and I am glad I did.

I ended up enjoying this rollicking, shaggy story of Templeton and its generations of rowdy townsfolk much more than I expected. It is loosely based on the history of Cooperstown, New York, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and on the stories written by one of the town's forefathers, James Fennimore Cooper.

Have you read either The Monsters of Templeton or Fates and Furies? What did you think?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

From The Monsters of Templeton:

He squeezed his eyes shut. And, thus safe against my mother’s magnificent though untethered bosoms, he explained as calmly as he could that Marmaduke Temple was perhaps the archetypical American, the first self-made man; that he, a Quaker, had slaves was scandal enough; and far worse, that he, a married man, had relations with his slaves – scandalous!

Thursday, February 16, 2023

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"I'm sorry, Hawthorne. But the answer's no. Our deal is over."

-- from The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz.

This is the latest -- the fourth -- book in Anthony Horowitz's "Hawthorne & Horowitz" series. I loved the first three and this one is just as much fun. The premise is that Anthony Horowitz is a character in the books, playing himself. Detective Hawthorne, a retired police office brought in to consult on cases, hires Horowitz to write "true crime" books about the murder cases he's working on. I love them!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

"But you've got to see things from my point of view. You can't have a main character who doesn't give anything away, and frankly, being with you, I feel I'm up against a brick wall.”

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fourth literary whodunit following The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, and A Line to Kill, Horowitz becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation—and only one man can prove his innocence: his newly estranged partner in solving crime, Detective Hawthorne.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

2022 European Reading Challenge -- WINNER!

2022 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR!

THIS IS THE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT POST FOR 2022

TO FIND THE 2022 REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO FIND THE 2022 WRAP UP POSTS, GO TO THIS PAGE

THE 2023 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE SIGN UP IS AT THIS PAGE

2022 was the tenth anniversary of the European Reading Challenge! The challenge involves reading books set in different European countries or written by authors from different European countries.

Big thanks to all the participants who joined me for the Grand Tour in its tenth year!

JET SETTER GRAND PRIZE WINNER

The 2022 Jet Setter prize goes to Sabine at sabines.literary.world who participated on Instagram, visited all 50 European states, and reviewed the books she read. Her wrap up post discusses her reading journey.

Honorary Mention (but no prizes) go to the six other participants who completed the challenge and posted wrap up posts about the countries they visited and the book they read:

Sue at Carey Family (5)
Avid Series Reader (10)
Maphead's Book Blog (20)
Cinzia at Quattro passi sulle nuvole (13)
Kym at Just a Second (4 countries in three books)
Reese at Typings (13)

My own wrap-up post is here. I read nine books from different European countries, although only two were translations, which is backsliding from the year before. I didn't even try to review the books I read, which is too much as long as I am running my own law firm.

Congratulations to all the readers who completed the 2022 challenge!

There is still plenty of time to join us in 2023.

JOIN THE 2023 CHALLENGE! SIGN UP HERE

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

Sign up HERE for the 2023 Challenge.

Thursday, February 9, 2023

The Promise of a Normal Life by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me each week on Friday to share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading. Feel free to share instead from a book that caught your fancy or you feel like highlighting. Please hop around and visit the other participants!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

There's a picture of me, at eighteen, on the boat to Israel.

-- from The Promise of a Normal Life by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson. This debut novel finds a young Jewish-American woman trying to find her way in 1960s America and Israel. It launched this week from Skyhorse Publishing and I look forward to reading it!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add a link to your Book Beginning post in the box below and use the hashtag #bookbeginnigns if you share on social media.

THE FRIDAY 56

Polina had gorgeous high heels, also white, that showed under the dress. In the photograph, which was a formal picture from Brooks Portraits, Polina was seated, gazing, so her neck was long, over her right shoulder at the camera.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

For readers of Marilynne Robinson, Elizabeth Strout, and Katie Kitamura, the indelible journey of a quiet young woman—the “silent person” in the Seder—finding her way.

Hailed as “radiant and transporting” (Margot Livesey), The Promise of a Normal Life is a poet’s debut novel, so evocative of life as lived that it transports you to a time and place you can practically see, touch, and feel. The unnamed narrator is a fiercely observant, introverted Jewish-American girl who seems to exist in a private and separate realm. . . .

Along the way, she meets a glamorous hairdresser on a cruise ship to Israel, loopy tarot-card-reading passengers, and Alice-in-Wonderland lawyers in Haifa. There’s a blue-eyed all-American college boyfriend, a mystified tourist agent in the Lofoten Islands, a handsome eligible rabbi in LA, a righteous and self-absorbed MIT professor, and a clandestine, calculating lover in Boston. Eventually, she finds her own compass, but only after being swept to several distant shores by many winds.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Thirst by K.L. Barron -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The commune dogs loped after us through the garden, past the yellow heads of sunflowers, over the ripe strawberries we didn't pick to sell at the market but left for the birds, cutting sharp turns against the sea- colored herbs, their fragrance clinging to our skin, to our destination: a concrete statue in a cemetery, an unnamed young girl holding a flower basket.

-- from Chapter One, "Summer, Gaia Commune, Central Valley, California, 1989," in Thirst by K.L. Barron.

Although this story starts in California, Thirst takes place in Africa, among the Tuareg people of Niger. It only came out recently and I am excited to read it.

Thirst would make a good companion read with Blue Dessert by Celia Jeffries (reviewed here), also about the Tuareg society. Thirst has a more contemporary setting, in 1989-1990, when the Tuaregs' traditional, nomadic culture is in grave risk of dying out. Blue Dessert is set in the early 1900s, when the Tuaregs' way of life was on the cusp of inevitable conflict with modernization.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

THE FRIDAY 56

He spent his days protecting his family's goats and came back at night to protect me. This is before he tells me his father thinks I'm a government spy and sends him to spy on me.

Monday, January 30, 2023

New Books for February Reading -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

Do you generally buy new or used books? The books that come my way, while "new to me," are not usually new copies. I almost always buy used books (I'm particularly fond of library shops). But the universe conspired to bring four new books to me last week.

The King's General by Daphne du Maurier I'm reading for a buddy read with some bookstagrammer friends. We've been reading a du Maurier book each month since November and The King's General is our February book. I needed a copy to start reading this past weekend so got this one when I was at Powell's last week.

The Promise of a Normal Life by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson launches on February 7 and sounds so wonderful that I jumped at the offer of a review copy. It is a coming of age story about a young Jewish-American woman who encounters adventure and colorful characters as she crisscrosses the US and the ocean to Israel, eventually finding herself on her journey.

Thirst by K.L. Barron is another new book that sounded too good to pass up. I was happy to accept a review copy of this fascinating novel about a young woman living among the nomadic Tuareg people in Niger.

The Maid by Nita Prose seems incredibly popular right now, so I was excited that my book club picked it for our next read. But it is so popular that there is a four-month wait for the audiobook from my library and used copies are selling for the same as new ones. I hope it lives up to the hype. We've had a bad streak at book club of picking popular books no one in book club ended up liking.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Thursday, January 26, 2023

The King's General by Daphne de Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

MY BOOK BEGINNING

September, 1653. The last of summer. The first chill winds of autumn.

-- from The King's General by Daphne de Maurier. Each sentence was so short — and not even a complete sentence — that I wanted to give more than one! I understand why authors like those sorts of staccato openings, using several short sentences or fragments like brushstrokes to paint a scene. But I admit my preference is for full, shaggy opening sentences full of actual story.

In this case, I don't think I'll have to wait long to get to heart of this plot-driven historical fiction novel set on the Cornish coast during the English Revolution. I'm reading The King's General as part of an ongoing buddy read project on Instagram where a group of us are reading through several Daphne du Maurier books.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the Linky box below. Use the hashtag #bookbeginnings if you share on social media.

THE FRIDAY 56

That Richard should ill use his wife because he could not trifle with her property was an ugly fact to face, but, having some inkling of his worse self, I guessed this to be true. He had married her without love, and in much bitterness of heart, and she, suspecting his motive, had taken care to disappoint him.

Well, that doesn't sound like a happy state of affairs!

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Saul Bellow Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

SAUL BELLOW

Saul Bellow (1915 to 2005) may have been born in Canada, but he was an American treasure. He won the Pulitzer Prize once and the National Book Award three times. In 1976, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Nobel Committee described his work:

The structure is apparently loose-jointed, but for this very reason gives the author ample opportunity for descriptions of different societies; they have a rare vigour and stringency, and a swarm of colourful, clearly-defined characters against a background of carefully observed and depicted settings, whether it is the magnificent façades of Manhattan in front of the backyards of the slums and semi-slums, Chicago’s impenetrable jungle of unscrupulous businessmen intimately intertwined with efficient criminal gangs, or the more literal jungle in the depths of Africa, where the novel, Henderson the Rain King, the writer’s most imaginative expedition takes place. In a nutshell, they are all stories on the move, and, like the first book, are about a man with no foothold. But (and it is important to add this) a man who keeps on trying to find a foothold during his wanderings in our tottering world, one who can never relinquish his faith that the value of life depends on its dignity, not on its success, and that the truth must triumph at last, simply because it demands everything except – triumphs. That is the way of thinking in which Saul Bellow’s “anti-heroes” have their foundation and acquire their lasting stature.

Bellow is a real favorite of mine. Henderson the Rain King didn't do anything for me, but I think Hertzog and Humbolt's Gift are wonderful.

Here is a list of Bellow's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read it, it is on my TBR shelf, or if it is available from my library as an audiobook.

There is Simply Too Much to Think About (2015) (essays and criticism) FINISHED

Saul Bellow: Letters, edited by Benjamin Taylor, (2010) (correspondence)

Collected Stories (2001) (short stories)

Ravelstein (2000) FINISHED

The Actual (1997) (novella) TBR SHELF

It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future (1994) (essays) TBR SHELF

Something to Remember Me By: Three Tales (1991) (short stories) TBR SHELF

The Bellarosa Connection (1989)

A Theft (1989) (novella) TBR SHELF

More Die of Heartbreak (1987) TBR SHELF/AUDIOBOOK

Him with His Foot in His Mouth (1984) (short stories)

The Dean's December (1982) FINISHED

To Jerusalem and Back (1976) (memoir) TBR SHELF

Humboldt's Gift (1975) (Pulitzer winner; reviewed here) FINISHED

Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) (National winner; reviewed here) FINISHED

Mosby's Memoirs (1968) (short stories)

The Last Analysis (1965) (play)

Herzog (1964) (National winner) FINISHED

Henderson the Rain King (1959) FINISHED

Seize the Day (1956) FINISHED

The Adventures of Augie March (1953) (National winner; reviewed here) FINISHED

The Victim (1947) FINISHED

Dangling Man (1944) FINISHED

NOTES

This is a redo of a list I first posted back in 2010.

I also have a biography of Bellow on my TBR shelf by Ruth Miller called Saul Bellow: A Biography of the Imagination. I have a lot of biographies of my favorite authors on my TBR shelves. I sledom read authors' biographies, thinking I want to read all, or more of their books before I read their biographies. This is silly.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What are you reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) with us here on Book Beginnings on Fridays. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy or you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it at the moment.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"Sent down for indecent behavior, eh?" said Paul Pennyfeather's guardian.

-- From Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. This is Waugh's first novel, published in 1928, well before Brideshead Revisited. It is a satire of boarding school life in Britain between the wars. I just started it and it is very funny, more farce than satire so far, almost slapstick.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

THE FRIDAY 56

Another weekly teaser event is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice where you can find details and add a link to your post. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book you are featuring. You can also find a teaser from 56% of the way through your ebook or audiobook.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Decline and Fall:

"Oh, sir," came a chorus of reproach, "you've hurt his feelings. He's very sensitive; it's his Welsh blood, you know: it makes people very emotional."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Sent down from Oxford after a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly surprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at a boys' private school in Wales. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze. As the farce unfolds in Evelyn Waugh's dazzling debut as a novelist, the young run riot and no one is safe, least of all Paul.

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Lorrie's Deal by Buck Sawyer -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

How are you doing this second week of January? I'm still wildly swinging between new year energy and a lingering post-holiday slump. I feel like a vitality/lethargy yo-yo!

But I am back again to share from a book I want to highlight this week on Book Beginnings. Please share the first sentence (or so) from the book you are reading -- or just a book that caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

If you wrong the Mob, if you help the Feds take down a crime family, you become dead or go Gone. Thirty-nine years ago, I'd picked Gone.

-- Lorrie's Deal by Buck Sawyer. This new novel is about a mid-level gangster who narced on his boss and got witness protection in New Mexico. Decades later, he retired to Florida. That sounds like the set up for an Elmore Leonard book, so I hope this is as lively and fun.

A lawyer buddy of mine in Boise sent me this book, which his friend wrote. I've worked with this lawyer for years, most intensely when we litigated 30 sex abuse claims against the Boy Scouts and the Mormon Church. Those cases took ten years to finish, so I spent a lot of time in Boise with my buddy Andy Chasan.

The author of this book, Buck Sawyer, lists Andy as one of his "test readers" with a sample of Andy's commentary: "Tears? That's a cheap out. Fine, don't listen to me but that's dumb." That makes me laugh because it sounds just like Andy. That's exactly how he talked to our clients.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Lorrie's Deal:

“The Bureau has honored your wish for us to handle your relocation—”
“That wasn't a wish, that was a demand.”

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lorenzo Mancuso is a guy with secrets. As a kid, his broken family spilled him onto the streets of Philadelphia. His childhood buddy brought him into the home of the family that ran the Family—the biggest crime Family in that city. He grew up and muscled for them on the streets, but, with his head for numbers, he ended up helping to run the business. Lorrie achieved his dream of being important, trusted and valued. Right up until he wasn’t. Lorrie worked for the Family but wasn’t actual family— and having the Family’s secrets marked him for death. Lorrie made a quick, strategic choice and stayed alive by taking his secrets to the FBI. The Mafia bosses went to prison, Lorrie got a one-way ticket to New Mexico and a new identity. The FBI kept him safe, hidden there for thirty years. Then, without their permission, he moved to an upscale retirement home in Florida. What’s a guy like Lorrie—with time on his hands and crime on his resume—do to keep himself entertained? What secret brought him to Florida? What happens when, for the very first time, other people become more important to him than himself?

Monday, January 9, 2023

Books for Christmas, Finally! MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

Yes, the picture above is the stack of books I got for Christmas. I meant to do a Mailbox Monday post earlier, but I didn't get around to it until now. Holidays, work, and a sick cat intervened. Now the holidays are behind us, work is quiet this month, and Ella Cat is feeling a little better, so I have some time to catch up on the blog.

War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy in a fancy Easton Press edition. I asked for this one so I would be well kitted out for the W&P readalong I'm doing on Bookstagram that started New Year’s Day.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. This is the one new book I’ve had my eye on so I am very excited about getting a copy.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky because Santa figured as long as he was dipping from that Easton Press well, it was easy enough to dip in twice.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham in a fancy Folio Society edition. I got one of these for my law partner for her baby gift and might have mentioned to Santa how much I would like one for myself.

Churchill in Punch, edited by Gary L. Stiles, was a complete surprise and is super cool. It is a compilation of all of the more than 600 cartoons of Winston Churchill in Punch magazine from 1899 to 1988, with captions, attribution, and contextual commentary.

Do any of these catch your fancy? What good books did you get or give for gifts this year?

Other books have drifted into my house in the last few weeks. I haven't even processed them, but when I do, I will do another Mailbox Monday post.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Saturday, January 7, 2023

My Top Ten Books of 2022 -- BOOK LIST

MY TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022

I don’t usually choose my Top 10 reads of the year. That feels like asking me to chose my favorite cat. Or favorite grandchild. (Well, actually, I could do that. But don’t tell anyone!)

But I thought I'd try something new this year and give a go at making a list of my ten favorite books of the past year. I did not have all ten handy, having read a few with my ears and loaned a couple out. So instead, here you have a picture of my newly tidied up reading corner, now that I put away the Christmas decorations.

Here’s the list of my favorite ten books I read in 2022, in the order I read them. I don't think I could put them in order of preference -- that would be asking too much! See any of your own favorites here?

Katherine by Anya Seton, a classic of historical fiction. It was the first (full) book I read in 2022 and it stuck with me.

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, which I gave a couple people for gifts because I loved it so much. It is a charming novel about grown up siblings dealing with the fallout of the ne'er-do-well brother blowing their inheritance.

The Word is Murder, the first in Anthony Horowitz’s Hawthorne Investigates series. I quickly gobbled up the other two and have the new, fourth book on hold at the library.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci, which I listened to twice because he reads the audiobook himself and it is fantastic.

The Counterlife by Philip Roth was very clever and made me think.

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler was a reread for me but so good it sparked a Chandler binge.

The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger was a surprise I found hidden on my TBR shelf, a gift from a bookstagram buddy.

Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater was my first Slater book and now I’m hooked!

White Teeth by Zadie Smith was excellent, simply excellent. I can't believe it took me so long to get to this clever, intricately-plotted story.

Call it Sleep by Henry Roth is a forgotten classic I put off reading because I thought it would be boring. On the contrary! It is so, so good and will become a book I proselytize for.

The complete list of the 111 books I read in 2022 is here. You can find links to the my annual book lists under the tab at the top of the page called Reading by Year.

What were your favorite books of 2022?

Friday, January 6, 2023

Kate Atkinson Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

KATE ATKINSON

I came to love Kate Atkinson (b. 1951) because of her Jackson Brodie mystery series, which I gobbled up and hope she continues writing. But I enjoy all of her books. She is a wide-ranging and talented English author, who has won many awards and honors for her work. For instance, she was awarded an MBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. I look forward to reading all of her books and rereading the Brodie books.

Here is a list of Kate Atkinson's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read the book, it is on my TBR shelf, or it is available as an audiobook from my library.

Are you a Kate Atkinson fan? What are your favorites?

2022 Shrines of Gaiety AUDIOBOOK

2019 Big Sky (Jackson Brodie) FINISHED

2018 Transcription TBR SHELF

2015 A God in Ruins (Todd Family) FINISHED

2013 Life After Life (Todd Family) FINISHED

2010 Started Early, Took My Dog (Brodie) (reviewed here) FINISHED

2008 When Will There Be Good News? (Brodie) FINISHED

2006 One Good Turn (Brodie) FINISHED

2004 Case Histories (Brodie) FINISHED

2002 Not the End of the World (short stories) TBR SHELF

2000 Emotionally Weird TBR SHELF

2000 Abandonment (play) TBR SHELF

1997 Human Croquet TBR SHELF

1995 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Costa Book of the Year Award) (reviewed here) FINISHED

NOTES

I hope to read Transcription this year (2023). It sounds like a terrific yarn about a former WWII espionage agent whose wartime spy work is coming back to haunt her in the Cold War years.

The first Kate Atkinson book I read was Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which I read because I'm working my way through the winners of the Costa Book of the Year Award. But after that, I dove into the Jackson Brodie books, have tried to keep up with her new releases, and have never gone back to her earlier books. They all look very good, so I want to make an effort. Of course, I say that about so many of the authors whose books are languishing on my TBR shelves!

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )